The Reds had been hot and All-Star starting pitcher Hunter Greene was having a monster season. Then the Reds lost 7-1 to the Royals Friday night. Then on Saturday, the Reds placed Greene on the injured list due to right elbow soreness. That was scary enough to hear, considering the climate around pitcher injuries these days -- plus Greene underwent Tommy John surgery a few years ago -- but then the Reds lost 13-1.
It was a rough few days in Cincy.
It's possible Greene only misses a few turns in the rotation. Manager David Bell said the "MRI looked good," to reporters (per The Enquirer's Charlie Goldsmith), but any time out still hurts the Reds. There's also the implications for NL Cy Young voting.
Now, this isn't to say that Greene was a frontrunner for the award or anything, but keep in mind that each ballot has slots for first through fifth place with point totals assigned to each place. A player finishing third or fourth on a handful of ballots will impact the final tally and Greene is certainly in that mix.
Even just a few missed starts leaves an opening for others to move up a few slots on some ballots and that kind of jockeying can make a difference. As an example, look at the BBWAA voting breakdown chart for the NL Cy Young in 2021. Zack Wheeler and Corbin Burnes tied with 12 first-place votes, but the second-place votes are what swung the thing toward Burnes. For anyone who tracks awards, this is a good illustration of how the Greene injury could move the needle here.
Through 24 starts this season, Greene is 9-4 with a 2.83 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 162 strikeouts in 143 1/3 innings. Heading into Saturday, just before he hit the IL, he was third in the league in ERA, fifth in WHIP, fourth in strikeouts and first in WAR (Baseball Reference's version; he's fifth in FanGraphs' version).
If Greene spends the minimum 15 days on the injured list, he could well come back just as effective as before and finish very highly in the vote. Keep in mind, this isn't a field that'll knock you over this season. Chris Sale is the leader in the clubhouse and seems like the only one definitely ahead of Greene in the pecking order right now. Others in the mix would be Wheeler, Logan Webb, Paul Skenes, Tyler Glasnow (who also just landed on the IL) and Dylan Cease.
Further, the Reds could get hot again with Greene nursing his injury and then benefit from his return. They are five games out of a playoff spot and that could be workable after a hot streak.
Overall, though, it seems like a lot changed for the Reds and Greene in the last two days.
